Someone said "write what you know." It was definitely Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Nathan Englander, or somebody else.

I've mostly seen the quote applied to writing fiction.

Apparently some folks assume that it means authors should only write stories about events they've experienced. That may help explain why fantasy and science fiction stories aren't taken seriously in some circles, and entirely too seriously in others.

Others, including John Briggs, Diablo Cody/Brook Busey-Maurio and Jason Gots, say it means using the author's emotional memories when telling stories. They're professional writers, so I figure they know what they're talking about.

Joy of community. Writers go forth. Onward and Upward. God Bless Welcome,Join me in my camp here.
Are you familiar NaNoWriMo? It is National Novel Writing Month. It is a virtual camp for writers to achieve their goals in creative writing. Having tried to do this camp NaNoWriMo thing for years. Finally, I am a participant yeah for me. In July, the writer can choose their own word count. Well, in any camp you can. Just do not let the stress and getting it perfect get to you anymore. My saying is “better done than perfect”.
If I reach the goal, great and if I do not great. I am participating, to me that is all that matters right now. read more

I am part of a little Catholic book called Love Rebel: Reclaiming Motherhood. One of the contributors, Bonnie Way, asked me questions about blogging for her own blog, The Kola Mom. First, tell us a bit about yourself. It took me years to finally decide to start writing again. I had taken a 30-year sabbatical after leaving university to raise nine children. I just couldn’t seem to start writing, probably because the computer still intimidated me before I started blogging. No wonder- I had written all my university papers on a MANUEL typewriter. However, realistically there was simply too much work running a household for eleven people and helping with the farm animals and our large vegetable garden. continue

Four years ago, when I tried to write on a computer, I could not translate the same creative energy that I experienced telling a story verbally to the keyboard. My intuitive, imaginative side stayed buried and my logical intellect wrote boring drivel. God used blogging to heal my frozen gift of writing.
I snapped to attention when I stumbled on blogs. Suddenly, I was thinking up a username, a title for a blog, looking at templates and design and layout. All these activities loosened up my creativity while I sat typing.
It was like an invisible barrier slowly melted, allowing my imagination to bubble up in a stream of written words that felt just as exhilarating as my oral tradition. I was excited to start sharing written stories with other people, people who would read them, respond, comment and give me feedback on what I had written. Within weeks, I was no longer an island but part of a community of other writers who had the very same insecurities and problems as I did. continue…

I'm sure that every Catholic blogger has asked themselves at least once why they do it. Is it really worth the time spent away from work, from family, from prayer? Is anybody listening? Does anybody care? One of my friends recently shut down his personal blog altogether, saying "While I have a lot of respect for many bloggers, I feel the blogosphere to be a net negative to the Catholic Faith. ... It is the epitome of Francis' 'self-referential Church.' Far from leading to a deepening of the faith, it has led to a corrosion of it." Could this be true?

My friend's words certainly don't describe the work of CatholicMom or any mommy blogger I know. But I've seen the corner of the Catholic blogosphere he describes -- the place where people attack one another viciously over minute points of doctrine or liturgical practices that baffle non-Catholics and fail to bring anyone to a holier and more peaceful frame of mind. I regularly engage in verbal fist…

I started on Pinterest - which isn't very common. As a convert to the faith married to an atheist, I wanted a place that I could gather all I could about this wonderful, rich tapestry of faith while at the same time respecting my first vocation as a wife. In the dark, I could collect images attached to websites that spoke of scapulars, saints, the Virgin Mary, Third Orders, the Mass and the Sacraments. This would be my first schooling into the faith as it happened in real life - after RCIA. The images turned into writing on a summer day last year and I write most every day. Some of my favorite posts are funny, revealing, controversial and deeply personal. The point of all of it…

Do you blog primarily on Catholic spirituality? Not a blog on
Catholic doctrine or apologetics, politics, book reviews or a “Mommy
blog”–but one focused on helping your readers grow closer to Christ? I
have not been able to find an exclusive list of spirituality links, so I
decided to create one. Send me an email at crossini4774 at comcast dot
net to have your blog listed on my new link page.
See more details on the requirements first.

I am a new contributor to The Association of Catholic Women blog. Jackie asked that I introduce myself. It might be better if someone who knows me well did the
honors. I can’t be very objective, but
I’ll try.
My name is Ruth Ann (Keller) Pilney. I am a native of Chicago, Illinois, where I was born and
raised. My heart lives in Chicago! Currently I live in California
with my husband Jim, who retired two weeks ago, from his work in manufacturing
of pharmaceuticals. The two of us will have been married 33 years in June. Our daughter, Catherine is
married to Andrés (Andy).
In 2008 I retired.
Now I enjoy the freedom that retirement brings. Among other things, it gives me time to write, read and
study. Writing is something I like to do, and I do it often. However I don’t write professionally, and never have. Instead,
I write letters, emails, and journals---and essays for my blog. In school I did scholarly writing, and I liked that. I
ventured into blogging about six months…

St. Francis de Sales is patron of Catholic writers. As a blogger, therefore, I happily claim him as a patron of "me." As the Church celebrates his feast on January 24th, I can imagine him sitting in the world of today with a laptop, clicking out the good news that indeed Jesus lives.

Francis wrote voluminously. Not only is he known for his books, but for his (numerous) letters. He also composed short pamphlets for wide distribution, to help clarify the faith in a time when confusion abounded. I like to imagine him patting today's Catholic bloggers on the back, encouraging us to "keep it up" as we distribute our witness to the Truth in THIS age of the Church and in our turbulent world.

St. Francis was a bishop and founder of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary; he was a busy man in France in the early 1600s. Still, he found time to take up his quill pen and spread the good news of Christ. As we clack away at our keyboards, often…

Tigresa and Whitey, two of my three catsAs a priest who loves cats I couldn't resist this story from the blog of Bishop-elect Thomas Dowd, soon to be auxiliary bishop of Montreal. I'm simply and shamelessly copying and pasting from his blog, Waiting in Joyful Hope. I don't know if he's distantly related to me. My maternal grandmother was Annie Dowd from County Meath, the 'Royal County'. Post for July 25, 2011
Christopher Curtis, in his recent article on me in the Montreal Gazette, includes this quote: “The job can be a lot of things. When I worked for a hospital, I was on call and you would get everything from a multiple victim car accident to a guy who is sick and needs you to feed his cat.”

In case you were wondering about the reference to a cat, it is from an incident that took place on March 7, 2006. My older posts are still in archives for the moment, but I thought I’d fish this one out and repost it (with just a bit of editing to help it make sense). Enjo…